Leeor Sabbah

An arbitration panel sitting in New York has awarded more than $1 billion against failed aviation reinsurance pool manager Fortress Re Inc., of North Carolina. In a decision issued on December 16, 2003, the panel found that Fortress Re and its principals, Maurice Sabbah and Kenneth Kornfeld perpetrated a massive fraud against Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.

The Joint Liquidators of Bermuda-registered Carolina Reinsurance Ltd. have filed a civil lawsuit in the United States against the firm's shareholders and auditor.They are seeking damages for tens of millions of dollars of dividends they claim were taken out of the company when it was insolvent.

Bermuda-domiciled Carolina Re was used to siphon approximately $470 million of premiums from a North Carolina-based aviation reinsurance pool known as Fortress Re, it has been alleged. And the principals who controlled both companies have been accused of providing the pool's members with false financial statements showing "exceptional" profits instead of "exceptional" losses.